Tuesday, May 20, 2014

When You Are Six

When you are six, it doesn't take much to have a bad week.

It starts when six year old boy and the neighbor girl, same age, decide to relieve themselves in the yard rather than take time to go inside to the bathroom. Girl's daddy doesn't seem to possess a sense of humor. Boy's daddy knows that the kids are only six years old and when you are six, peeing outside is fun. Boy's daddy kinda wishes the kid would have found a bush to hide behind, though. Six year old boy learns that there is less trouble involved if he just goes inside when nature calls.

Then six year old boy comes home spouting a brand new word. It is unfortunate that this particular word is not one that should be used in polite society. Boy's daddy wants to know where he heard this particular word. Six year old boy says that the neighbor boy said it to another kid. Boy's daddy wants to know if six year old boy knows what this word means. Six year old boy does not. Boy's daddy explains that this word is not a nice word. It is a word that nice people don't use. He tells six year old boy that if he doesn't know what a word means, he shouldn't say it. And if he does know what a word means and it is a word that is naughty, he shouldn't say it then, either. Six year old boy learns a lesson about bad words.

I really like the fact that my son didn't come all unglued when his son added a bad word to his vocabulary. He patiently explained, without having to go into detail about the meaning of the word which the kid is probably too young to totally grasp, that there are words that are not nice and he would not like to hear those words spoken in their home, or away from it, for that matter.

In these days of extreme political correctness and free speech zones, I am glad that my grandson is being taught right from wrong and not being taught that certain words are not allowed. The kid, while growing up, is going to be learning lots and lots of new words - not all of them nice. I believe that learning what is right and what is wrong will serve him much better than an outright banning of words. And I am certain that if this same kid decides to spout off words he knows are wrong, there will be consequences. Which makes a lot more sense to me than censoring speech or creating free speech zones.

As for the peeing on the lawn thing, I'm pretty sure that when my grandson has grandchildren of his own, he will probably still be peeing outdoors now and then. But by then he will have gained enough common sense to at least go find a tree to hide behind.

9 comments:

Being a country kid, I made that mistake once when I was little. I found a private place, but a nosy girl figured out what I was doing and ran and told her dad. It was after dark anyway and her dad and mine both had a good laugh about it. Dad told me the rules were a little different in town, unless you happened to be in France.

When our oldest boy (40 something now) was about 3 years old we were all camping out at a big public lake. He started to pee on a tree like he did at home. His grandma td him to go around the tree. He looked at her kinda funny, walked all the wayaround the tree, to the same place he started and finished his job!

Harry...Yeah, the poor kid has lots to go through before he grows up. Lucky for him, though, he has really good parents. Personally, I think I would rather deal with this aging stuff than to go through childhood again!

And then there was yesterday...Jacob came home from kindergarten with $100 in his pocket. Much to our amazement, a friend in his class gave it to him. He gave Jacob $100, another friend $10 and a girl in class $1. Jacob said his friend gave him the most because he is his best friend.Staci had to walk Jacob back to school and talk with his teacher, and of course, give the money back. It sounds like this friend found his parents stash of money on the night stand and thought he would share it with his kindergarten friends.The lesson of the day was we don't accept money from friends in kindergarten. David.

About Me

Mom of four and Grandma of six, who writes about family events both past and present as well as anything else that happens to come to mind, shares new photos as well as old and who enjoys life in general.